My son

[gothicfairy]

My son was born premature at 30 weeks at 3 weeks of age he contracted streb b meningitis his weight dropped to 1lb 2 and had a massive brain haemorrhage which caused hydrocephalus and he also has chronic lung disease and asthma and epilepsy.
He has had to endure many operations and tests over the years.

His development has been a very slow process he was late developing normal things like crawling and walking and speech but he got there in the end, he is currently attending a mainstream school which is where our new fight is beginning.
I realise that rhodium has special needs at the age of 6 he is struggling with his reading and writing socially he is perfect he interacts well and has friends his behaviour is second to non he isn?t disruptive or violent to class friends or anyone.
I had a meeting which I thought was about bullying as I had made a few complaints about a boy in his class picking on him pressing his shunt, pushing poking and kicking him.
The meeting was in fact about maybe I should start to look at special schools for him they apparently give him the max support in classroom of a teaching assistant that sits with a group of children to help them and guided reading.
The head stated this is provided out of her own school pocket and that he is now being statement and these people will place rhodium in a better suited school if extra money won?t be provided.

So bossily my sons education and happiness of being with his friends like for the last 3 years comes down to money if they get extra funding he can stay if not I will have to move him to a special school

Can they do this??? I don?t know where to go or what to do I don?t think he needs a special school as he is making progress where he is

Star is right, every child has the right to a mainstream education. However, my son moved from a mainstream to special school this month, and the small classes and specialist help have been incredibly helpful for him. So do visit the local special schools as you may be pleasantly surprised.

I would also suggest visiting other mainstream schools as well. There may be another one locally which has more experience of SN so you could move him to another mainstream instead of a special school. If your son gets a statement you will be able to name any (state) school you want.

Hi Gothicfairy

Your son sounds lovely! I was told by DD's school SENCO that a school can refuse to take a pupil with additional needs if the school feels it cannot accommodate the childs needs. I'm not sure how true this is though - it might be worth contacting someone like Parent Parternship etc..

My understanding is the school can only refuse to accept a child if his being there will adversly effect the education of others & this does not mean because it costs more.

If you believe your ds should stay in ms school then fight for it but, & of course it up to you but do you want him in a school where he is not welcomed & wanted & that attde of inclusion has to come from the head.
Inclusion in ms & excellent sn provision is only possible if the school wants it to work

I have all sorts of feelings about the school its not so much his educational side they are concerned about.

They are basing it on his medical and the amount of medication required for him in one day. ( he has x2 ashtma pumps in school one for 2 oclock and the other as and when)

He at the moment recieves the same support as any other child in his class.

I have already looked at the special school and if needed i have found the one who i would send him too as the staff seem nice.

At 6 i dont want to take him out of the enviroment he is used to he has some very good friends in his class.

Thats crap I recon in every class there are at least a couple of children with asthma pumps.
My ds2 has asthma pumps and reflux meds given at school each day, teachers have no problems with it.
Ask to speak to the school nurse, they should eb able to put a care plan in place.

If you think that your son might benefit from some more 1 to 1 learning time you could always consider a "joint placement" with your son attending his mainstream school and a apecial school part time. DS's special school do this a lot but you need to get both lots of teachers talking to each other.
My other comment is to do with the MS school ignoring the bullying, especially the buy who is pressing his shunt. Do they know that this could be dangerous? Please talk to thm about it.

Reading what you've written, if it wasn't for the good friends your son has, I'd suggest looking at other M/S schools in the area too...

I'd also be tempted to go down the asking for statutory assessment so that you know if there are any learning difficulties from the hydro, as this could influence school choice (you may know this already).

Oh, and this is worrying (and incorrect):

"The head stated this is provided out of her own school pocket and that he is now being statement and these people will place rhodium in a better suited school if extra money won?t be provided."

Sure others can explain better than me...